It's fairly simple, it's winter and people are burning cylinders of compressed coal powder by the truckload. I haven't seen any sign of heating oil being used here.

I live in an apartment with nicely designed, modern radiators and the complex is served by a central boiler plant. It may be difficult for me to regulate the heat in my apartment, but the heating works so well that I can barely stand to wear a summer weight shirt at home. Unfortunately, the blasted compressed coal is traditional here and a lot of people use it. All that coal smoke is going straight into the air, with no scrubbers, because it is burned at the household level. The further from the city center one gets, the more you'll find people just burning those cylinders of compressed coal powder in cast iron stoves. They're viewed with a kind of nostalgia or fondness, something like fireplaces and wood burning stoves in the US. I know several restaurants with perfectly good heat that still use the things.

Not only is heat being generated by coal, but the heat isn't conserved and so even more coal gets burned. It doesn't help that "fresh" air is supposed to be a virtue, so the average window in China (if one can get the Chinese to keep it closed) is slightly more effective than cheesecloth for stopping wind, and winds in Northeast China are often fairly strong. Most buildings in the region are brick and the local idea of insulation is ... thicker brick walls.
The air this winter has been particularly bad. Normally, we have strong winter winds that clear the air, but this year we haven't.

The rise of China's industrialism coincides with the rise of cleaner technology. If/when fossil fuels (such as coal, which China depends heavily upon at the moment) become more expensive, less efficient and less easy to produce than their cleaner counterparts (Solar/wind/tidal energy, etc), then I would expect this smog to gradually disappear.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

The rise of China's industrialism coincides with the rise of cleaner technology. If/when fossil fuels (such as coal, which China depends heavily upon at the moment) become more expensive, less efficient and less easy to produce than their cleaner counterparts (Solar/wind/tidal energy, etc), then I would expect this smog to gradually disappear.

Absolutely. China is the number one investor in green energy research as well.

Absolutely. China is the number one investor in green energy research as well.

I wouldn't say we're there just yet though; namely due to supply and demand. Lobster for example used to be seen as absolute trash by fisherman, and was usually thrown overboard when caught. A few endeavoring chefs however found out that this rather large, ugly looking crustacean was in fact quite delicious and so, people demanded it more and more, and so too did fishermen/chefs demand more for providing it.

China's energy sources tend to be in their 'pre/post lobster boom' states, so to speak. Nobody wants coal anymore and so, just as a few might have known how tasty lobster was before it became popular, so too are China left with an energy source that no-one really wants anymore, which thus makes it a very cheap energy source too.

This smog issue may well get worse before it gets better.

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't." - Roger Scruton

Originally Posted by Wells

I see no point in compelling integration. If you can't make your society sufficiently enticing to integrate willingly, then perhaps its not so superior.

London went through this, and eventually got out of it. China will too. I'm much more concerned about their aging workforce and economy propped up with unnecessary infrastructure spending. But I think these are all challenges China will work through.

Don't forget the fact that they have a ton of money coming into the country and their currency's worth should rise to the point that it isn't a good business decision to base all that manufacturing in China anymore. Or they generation coming up that is around 70% male because of their population laws and culture. That isn't going to be good.

i drink quite a lot of green tea, but it is also the amount of veggies and fruit in their cuisin, western food (aside from highly processed nowadays) is very based on high meat high carbs low veggies (aside from Mediterranean diet which is considered to be very healthy)

And that, is unhealthy...
Always makes me laugh when my chinese friends complains about people asking her about tea's to lose weight, she always goes on a rant that tea is not enough, you need more veggies and less crap, the fiber is very important

i drink quite a lot of green tea, but it is also the amount of veggies and fruit in their cuisin, western food (aside from highly processed nowadays) is very based on high meat high carbs low veggies (aside from Mediterranean diet which is considered to be very healthy)

And that, is unhealthy...
Always makes me laugh when my chinese friends complains about people asking her about tea's to lose weight, she always goes on a rant that tea is not enough, you need more veggies and less crap, the fiber is very important

Indeed. Chinese eat a very veggie based diet. Here in the West, we have vegetables to compliment a large amount of meat. It's the other way round there.

Don't forget the fact that they have a ton of money coming into the country and their currency's worth should rise to the point that it isn't a good business decision to base all that manufacturing in China anymore. Or they generation coming up that is around 70% male because of their population laws and culture. That isn't going to be good.

And wages in the manufacturing sector have been increasing 20% year over year for the last few years too.

'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!